If a SXSW Musician Pokes Me in the Eye, Do I Get Workers' Comp?

South by Southwest is rock and roll incarnate—dark, three-level bars with a different band playing on each level, with music coming from every door, window, and tent for miles around the center of Austin, Texas. It's gritty, it's passionate, and the bands playing are at their most vulnerable.

Since most sets are only thirty to forty-five minutes, many of them feel like opening acts. It's always, "Do you know who this band is? Who's on next?"

There are musicians everywhere. And the people who aren't musicians look like they could be musicians. Half the people at these shows seem to be wearing music artist wristbands. It's great—everyone's on even playing ground, from the fans to the media to the performers.

Chuck and my first show of the fest was a Minneapolis band called Solid Gold. These guys have a couple new CDs in the works, and have been working with some current heavy-hitters on the local music scene, including P.O.S., Eyedea, Ryan Olcott. If you're not familiar with those names, just know they represent hip-hop, hard indie rock, and electronica. 

When we walked into Maggie Mae's for the show, we saw three dudes onstage wearing mariachi suits—all the same except for each had a different colored ascot around his neck. They have the indie pop toe-tapping emo dance down pat. The bass player starts off their songs with a head-bobbing beat sample, and then he chimes in with the guitarist/singer and keyboardist/rhythm guitarist. For three guys with no drummer, they sure make a lot of noise. It's loud, but it's not hard. The singer has a great voice that's a little raspy, backed up by a hard-pop electronica band with house music beats. Perfect dancing or driving music, especially their song "Get Over It."

After interviewing Solid Gold, we headed over to Habana Calle for another Minneapolis band, The Deaths. The name "The Deaths" doesn't reflect the band's sound or image at all. It's a four-member indie rock band that moved from Fargo to Minneapolis to try to get a better edge on the music scene. They're currently finishing their second LP.

They're in the basement of this venue, which has vines on the ceiling, is a little too bright, and smells like a gymnasium. When we get there I notice there's a guy in a 7th Street Entry hoodie, Anna Lee from Voltage: Fashion Amplified (we saw her at Solid Gold too), and another guy who I hear talking about Ruby Isle's Monday show at the 400 Bar. It's not packed by any means, but as people are walking from Calle's Annex stage to the basement stage to the patio stage, a good crowd builds.

The Deaths look like they're from Fargo. They've got that corn-fed, "I'm in a band and I smoke cigarettes" kind of look to them. And I'm not knocking that—it works for them. Their sound seems a little Beatles-influenced at times, a little Pink Floyd-influenced at times, and then just some straight indie rock. Chuck thought he heard a Moody Blues bass line in one tune as well.

Their beats are very simple, which lends to the band's pop sound. But I think this band needs to be careful with that simplicity. I found myself really liking one song, and tapping my foot to it, and then three minutes later realizing my foot's tired and I'm a little bored. That subsided when they started their next tune, of course.

Chuck and I chatted up the band after their set, and then started off to our final venue of the evening: the Flamingo Cantina.

After waiting in our first line of the fest to see some tunes, our music badges finally got us in to Har Mar Superstar's show (badges get you priority over those who just have attendee wristbands). We got there early enough to see the band before him: a California-based rock band called the Willowz. I'd never heard of them, but Sean Hoffman (one of Mallman's drummers) said they'd played with them at the Turf Club recently.

The Willowz were amazing! Their show was exciting and their playing (very Zeppelin-sounding at times) was impeccable. The two long-haired guys on electric guitars and vocals and the long-haired girl on bass look like they could all be siblings. I haven't done any research—maybe they are siblings. They and the drummer were the most animated musicians we'd seen so far. They rock hard and bounce around on stage so much that at one point one of the guitarists almost fell off the stage and on me. During their last song, the other guitarist jumped around the stage so much he fell down—but got right back up and climbed up on a speaker and jumped off that.

The high energy of that band was perfect to have onstage just prior to Har Mar Superstar, who came out dressed in a white sweatshirt over a blue T-shirt, pink pants, and some Etnies sneakers (which apparently Etnies asked him to wear).

For those of you who aren't familiar, Har Mar Superstar (AKA Sean Tillman) is originally from Minnesota. He's a one-man act that sings raunchy, overtly sexual lyrics to dance music. He looks not too unlike a troll doll. Oh yeah, and he likes to take off most of his clothes onstage.

Har Mar comes onstage and the first thing he says is, "Guess what, everybody? I'm f*cking wasted!" Straight off, he orders a shot of Jagermeister from the bar. He gets his tunes rockin', starts singing, and in no time is performing an oral sex act on Chuck's camera mike.

He commands the audience to applaud him for being "f*cking awesome" several times throughout the set. Then he bends over to reveal his plumber's crack sticking out of his tight pink pants. He ordered two Long Island iced teas. Audience members are buying him beers.

Basically, Har Mar has no limits. He jumps into the audience and is grinding on men and women alike, making them sing into the mike (I had to say something to the effect of "Har Mar is amazing"), and basically riles up the crowd by making them laugh, dance, and feel uncomfortable. But he's singing funny songs, and doing great covers, including Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke," so even if uncomfortable, the crowd is loving it.

Since we were standing on the side of the stage, he paid quite a bit of attention to us. He came over to me during one song and was going to caress my face or something, but instead poked me right in my left eye. Mind you, he had just been fondling himself onstage for half an hour. So he pokes me in the eye, stops, and goes, "Oh, f*ck." Then he gently rubbed my head and face for another minute while singing. I was just happy that he didn't try to stick his tongue down my throat, as he did with three or four girls in the front row. (Chuck's happy about that too, as I would've pushed him in front of me.)

At the end of the set, Har Mar's onstage in just his green briefs, socks, and Etnies. And a couple dollar bills shoved in his briefs. Then he sang "Brothers and Sisters" from Free to Be . . . You and Me. He played one more song and invited the crowd to come onstage and dance with him.

I was hoping to get a video interview with him after the set—I thought he at least owed me that—but he disappeared shortly after the last song's dance party. So Chuck and I grabbed a slice of pizza and called it a night.

I think I'll go wash out my eye again.

Comments

[katie]

"I found myself really liking one song, and tapping my foot to it, and then three minutes later realizing my foot's tired and I'm a little bored."
Awesome.

[chuck]

haha.... nice writeup of our crazy-ass night.

[AME]

Wow... I wish you had video of that "Har Mar" guy.... I was LMAO reading your bloggy blog.

[Megan]

AME--we'll have video of that Har Mar show up next week, but I'm not sure if Chuck captured the eye poke. :(